Our Contributions.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 458, 10 December 1880, Page 2

Our Contributions.

THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION. H> (By Garnet Walch.)

Perquisites — Tombstones — Marble — A good imitation—A reserved seat—Our theatres—Their programmes —A puzzled , tar—Cure for (the "blues"—Modern playgoers—The reason why—The art of " show printing"—Colour and aste —Public picture galleries •

There has been a good deal of talk during the week of certain accounts passed and to be passed by the Exhibition Finance Committee including considerable sums spent for solid and liquid refreshments, partaken of by a section of the commission in the sanctum sanctorum of their own meeting-room, and on the principle that there is never smoke without fire, I have little doubt, speaking even as an arrant outsider, that a few dozen of champagne have been already cracked, and a few pounds worth of delicacies demolished by some of the great men. Whether their services are worth this left-handed quid pi'O quo is quito another thing. But after all what matter a few hundreds, when tacked to the tail of nearly half-a-tnillion sterling. Bravo gentlemen ! say T, make hay when the sun Bhines, enjoy your pates defoies gras, your "Mumm," your "Krug," and your " Heidseck " while they last, for to-morrow brethren, to-morrow we die, or rather the Exhibition closes, and then comes—the final audit.

Talking of the final audit, naturally reminds mo of tombstones, tombstones of marble, rnarblo of the really wonderful imitations of that stone which I have just inspected in the exhibition. These specimens of the art of enamelling, or ' marbleizing," are shown by the wellknown firm of Wilson, Corben and - Co., and consist of mantelpieces, baths, tables, <$c. Enquiring as to tho process by which these elegant- articles are manufactured, I am furnished with the following information, which I have no doubt will bo interesting to most of my readers To begin then ; the Castlomaine slate, forming the basis of tho imitation marble, is received at tho firm's Lonsdalo street factory in rough masses, is sawn by steam power into the requisite size, arid p then passed on to the masons, who cut' And* f.

rarve it into various designs. From the masons it trawls into men in charge of a large revolving table propelled by steam where it is rubbed down until all rough edges and inequalities have disappeared. It is now shifted to the enamelling chop, where, after manual finish given to the nm-hino smoothing, it is handed to that past master of the craft, tho enamaller a highly salaried gentleman of great e_experienec, specially imported from England. Under his influence, aided by certain snbt'e applications of chemicals, varying according to the tints and effects to be produced, the dull unint reefing sla'e is transformed as by magic into the semblance of marble, the veins and mark-

ings being even more transparently delicate than in tho genuine article.

Tho next move of the now daintilycolored slate is an oven heated to 259 dogs Ahere with occasiomd withdrawals for rerubbing and re-coating it remains for ten days. It is then taken out and given to the polishers, who impart to it a gloss far exceeding that of real marble., both a* regards brilliancy and durability. The articles are then put together, and removed to the firm's show-rooms, 45, Elizabethstreet. Thus, in close imitation of the most beautiful mother marks of Nature, and at prices variously Ruited to the cottage, the mansion, and the palace, are ma le those handsome nianttd-pieceH,baths, fenders and tables which 99 men out of 100 would really take to be the produce of. the best European marble quarrie Messrs Wilson, Corben and Co. employ 50 men, busily executing the large orders always flowing in. Taking this opportunity of thanking the firm's courteous manager, Mr W. Cameron, for the above information, I feel a glow of satisfaction at having drawn public attention to a colonial industry so important and deserving of encouragement. Messrs Wilson, Corben and Co., I may add, took first prizes at the Geelong and Sydney Exhibitions, competing at the latter with both English and American exhibitors.

Reserved seats at the Exhibition concerts are quite a failure. On more than one occasion a large space has been portioned off for such capitalists as were likely to invest an extra shilling in the luxury of exclusivenesa. But the Commissioners reckoned without their host of customers, and the seats were but miserably occupied by a scanty leavening. Indeed, the majority of the public seem to have settled down into a belief that one shilling, tho familiar " bob" of every- lay life is to be considered quite enough pay for all and sundrysubshowssetupwil.ii the walls of the one gieat master-show, tho Exhibition itself The coin that admits tho owner to the pit of a theatre wherein he can see and hear a sp icial entertainment for tin cc or four hours at a stretch is surely enough to pay for the privile ;e of straining one's ears to catch a few bars of music or a few notes of a song amidst the jostling of elbows, the rustling of dresses, the shuffling of feet, and the susurruK of myriad voices.

And, talking of theatres, we are pretty well provided in that line in Melbourne now-a-days. Thus we have tho Royal, the Opera House, the Bijou, the People's, and last and least, the Novelty, or as the Hebraic lessee persists in styling it, tbe New Novelty. In addition to these, there are the Town Hall, the Athenaeum, the Apollo, and that frowsy resort of the tasteless moral-less many —the Colosseum. In all, at a rough guess, these central theatres and halls can accomodate from 16,000 to 17,000,—an under rather than an over estimate—so that the amusement loving populace of Melbourne are certainly pretty well provided for, when we can reckon a nigbtlj seat as ready for one in every fifteen of our men women and children, parsons, prisoners, lunatics, and other non-theatre goers included.

A few words concerning the programmes at our principal theatres. At the Royal, Miss Pomeroy, elegant, fault* a Iy diesaed most interesting of the many Juliets we have seen in this corner of the great world, ia charming all who can be persuaded to overlook the numerous shortcomings in the " cabt'' generally. This will probably be improved in Cymbcline, which, with much attention to details, is new being got ready. At the Opera House, that excellent actor and most genial gentleman Mr Wybert Reeve, supported by lovable Miss Myra Kemble is delighting us with " All For Her." At tho People's, George Darrell's revival of " Back from the Grave is in its second week, with its clever author in the role and Miss Watt-Tanner nightly developing more and moro of her really uncommon talent. At the Bijou, Mrs Lewis shines again, a bright particular uneclipsed star in the midst of shadows. And at the Novelty, the French Comedy Company are edifying the parquette, pleasing the stalls, mystifying the balcony and utterly bewildering tho pit. I shall never forget the series of expressions on the face of a worthy seaman who strolled leisurely into the last named part of. the House the other evening, quietly awaiting the rising of the curtain, listened more and more attentively to each freßh sentence uttered by the performers, shook his head, leaned forward and listened most intensely, and finally made his way hurriedly out, exclaiming—" Well I'm d d," and palpably pinching himself, to prove whether after all it might not be either a dream or tho commencement of delirium tremens.

I should not havo spoken of theatres, had I not jußt" done the round " of them.

—" Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth ; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul ; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet: and especially whenever my hypos gets such an upper hand of me, that it requirs a strong moral principal to prevent me from deliberately stepping into tbe street, and methodically knocking people's hats off, then I account it high time to go to the Theatre as soon as I can." The above, as many of my readers will recognise, is quoted from, with the solo alteration of the italicised word, from tbe first cbaptei of that most -powerful, most poetical. most widrd'y fascinating book, Hemnm Melville's '-Moby Dick or the White Whale." I happen to have been reading this for probuMy the tenth time and the temptation to quote the above passage was hresistible Certainly tho theatre i* one of the most useful safety valves we posse s in modern society, and as a meanfor exorcising tin blue devils is worth » whole armful of amulets.

And note too, the demand of modern playgoers. It is almo.-t exclusively i'ol comedies, opera-bouffe, comic opera, and the like, and seldom indeed for the ©Id world tragedy, or the heavy romantic drama. In thi*. recognise the great fact that the every day struggle is becoming more serious'with all classes and grades, that there is less bonhommie, less heart* less impulse evinced in the transactions ol the daytime, and that hence by a natural reaction we long for the simulated jollity of the stage so soon as the sun ib down. If we can't bo merry ourselves, and many of our modern parties are as melancholy as pauper funerals, let us at least have those about us. who are ready with cap and bells, with studied song, and well planned jest, in exchange for the money we have striven so hard so grubbingly, so soul-wearyingly to gath'. r.

How much of tbe above occurs to me as I pen this letter, and how much has been gradually forced upon my mind by my experience as a flaneur, I cannot undertake to say ; but ot this much I am daily becoming more and more convinced that whether they seek it in tho church the senate, or the theatre, whether in the diluted dissipation of a tea meeting, the galvanic gambols of a Gaunson, or the legitimate "buffooneries of a paid actor, amusement is as necessary to the average man acd woman as their daily bread. All of thitf, I may justly observe, is only an eighteenth century way of rendering the old Roman cry of panem el circenscs It is indeed so. With which admission I lay aside my stilts and descend to my own stage proper once more.